Who are the 1 percent?

As Paul Harvey used to say, "Self government without self discipline, won't work". No one has any "self discipline" or common sense any more. It's all about "me".

The shutting down of all mom and pop stores was the beginning of the end......

We need to stop exporting jobs from here

We need family businesses so we can have a large middle class.

The media is spinning things again. This movement is NOT about those hard working people who make a lot of money. Stop the class warfare. This is about corruption and greed and a government that is bought and paid for by special interests.

his story from Bloomberg just hit the wires this morning. Bank of America is shifting derivatives in its Merrill investment banking unit to its depository arm, which has access to the Fed discount window and is protected by the FDIC.

This means that the investment bank's European derivatives exposure is now backstopped by U.S. taxpayers. Bank of America didn't get regulatory approval to do this, they just did it at the request of frightened counterparties. Now the Fed and the FDIC are fighting as to whether this was sound. The Fed wants to "give relief" to the bank holding company, which is under heavy pressure.

This is a direct transfer of risk to the taxpayer done by the bank without approval by regulators and without public input. You will also read below that JP Morgan is apparently doing the same thing with $79 trillion of notional derivatives guaranteed by the FDIC and Federal Reserve.

What this means for you is that when Europe finally implodes and banks fail, U.S. taxpayers will hold the bag for trillions in CDS insurance contracts sold by Bank of America and JP Morgan. Even worse, the total exposure is unknown because Wall Street successfully lobbied during Dodd-Frank passage so that no central exchange would exist keeping track of net derivative exposure.

It's rich vs poor or have vs have-nots. There is no such thing as Republican or Demorcrat anymore. They want us to in fight to keep them on top.

Corporations write the laws that their puppet politicians rubber stamp. We need to get corporations out of our government.

Here is more statistics for you. Median annual wage at $47K. That means half of the American population makes less than that. I would love to get the raw data and determine what the standard deviation for that figure is, but I would be willing to bet that we don't have a standard bell curve. I pay taxes, but, I am very displeased with the scorn that you are placing on the 47%. The majority of those are working, and working hard. To call them freeloaders is both untrue and an insult.

our federal government/polititions have been given our money away for years to special intrests corporations and state and local polititions they all take our money and live off our backs and give our money away they are neglegent in caring for the ppl they take from us and give to there friends buying votes we the ppl need to change how our polititions are screwing us by buying votes.Our children & newborn are saddled to pay over 30,000+ on there day of birth our polititions are living there lives on our backs&our childern pay before they are even born this needs to be reversed our polititions federal,state and local need to be held in account for squandering our money and printing more to give to there friends this is gross neglegence and they should be illimenated for there inuiquides to the american ppl. We do not owe them our polititions owe us and should be stricken from there benefits&entitlements the table needs to be turned. our polititons need to pay for there greed they need to pay us they are the ones who created this mess passing or loking the other way while they&there friends rip us off

WEALTH + POLITICIANS = CORRUPTION.

Give China and every other NAFTA based country the middle finger and start manufacturing every good we can think of here at HOME. Tax the hell out of CEO's and companies who still outsource. It's really just that simple.

Im serious anyone below $100,000 will struggle for years ...suppose this economy will be like this supposely a total of 13 yrs ......hope it's untrue...i feel bad for anyone who's trying to found a job , go to college ,etcc ..it's going to take them years to get a fulltime job , or parttime .

People are losing track of the issue. The power of money is the problem, not HOW it was earned or if it is deserved. Our current system runs on MONEY in Washington DC. Legislation is made with it. Trade Agreements are signed because of it. Tax laws are formulated in it's interest. It is about CORPORATE GREED,, CORPORATE TAX EVASION, THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MIDDLE CLASS IN THE NAME OF CORPORATE PROFITS to benefit those who have most of the money. It is about WHO controls our Government and WHO buys the votes. If all these Trade Agreements and tax laws are in the best interest of this nation they WHY are we in the mess we are in? The ones at the top are loving life today because they have total control of our Congress while the average person is going down hill financially. This as about GREED and CORRUPTION that is destroying this country from the inside out.

How many politicians did you buy last election cycle?
How many lobbying firms did you employ?
If you answered 0,... then you are a member of the 99% club.

END LOBBYING.

"We are the 99%" is a slogan that is intended to demonstrate that the govt is in the hands of the financial markets in many ways. Campaign contributions, Federal Reserve actions that have benefited "too big to exist" financial institutions, government policies that do not benefit those that are working. People calling the protesters dirty, or unemployed, or stupid, or on the dole show a real lack of understanding of what is and has been occurring in this country for say maybe 30 years. Unfunded wars, wars in general, deficit spending, ineffective Congress, lame presidents, the financial crisis, high unemployment are but a few of the things that have driven people to protest. Although not the same as the Tea Party there is some common ground between the groups.However, people like to spew #$%$ on these pages and expose their own vitriol rather than create an economic awareness in themselves.Here is a fact that should concern all hard working Americans. 30 years ago the financial industry was 4% of GDP, we made things and good jobs were available to those that were willing to work hard and smart. Today the financial industry is over 40% of GDP! Jobs are hard to find, good jobs with a future and security are harder to find. The govt and much of those in the 1% with the means to change things are not doing so. Therefore the protests...

While Wall Street got bailouts and bonuses, Main Street got pink slips.

If the top 1% is salaries just over $340,000+...gotta wonder how many of the top 1% are made up of athletes and movie stars.

Also makes me wonder why taxes are raised to subsidize sports stadiums constantly so we can give hand-outs to the top 1%.

Man, this analysis is all over the news sites and it's wrong! This isn't about actual yearly income of those that work hard all their lives for it. This is the "already haves" and the "never will haves." Don't keep IDing the top 1% of the wealth as the top 1% of the EARNERS . Those are two completely different things. Having 20,000 doctors pull in high incomes has nothing to do with how much wealth they control. The Bankers Control the Wealth. That's poor reporting people.

Just because the financial sector does not make up the majority, does not mean that the politicians are not catering to their agendas before the people who do not make millions of dollars. I understand what this article is saying, but it totally is off point to what the protesters are protesting.